


Your New Least Favorite Player

by justlikeswitchblades



Category: Kuroko no Basuke | Kuroko's Basketball
Genre: Character Study, Fear of Flying, Gen, Post-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-17
Updated: 2018-09-17
Packaged: 2019-07-13 09:00:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,011
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16014641
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/justlikeswitchblades/pseuds/justlikeswitchblades
Summary: In a world of immense talent, Stanford's Shuuzou Nijimura looks for success in the NBA by aiming a little lower than the top.





	Your New Least Favorite Player

Shuuzou Nijimura, at five-foot-ten and a week late for a haircut, may not look like the captain of the Stanford men's basketball team. But on the court, he is undeniably impressive to watch. 

His playmaking presents a world of possibilities. He could drive to the inside and throw up a dunk for the power forward to slam in; or, he could pivot, and pass back to the shooting guard for a three. His total number assists and steals for the season made him one of the top five point guards in the NCAA last year--but that doesn’t keep him from holding on the ball and scoring a field goal of his own once in a while.

Less than a year from June, it’s no secret that the league has its eye on Shuuzou. But Shuuzou himself wonders if he’s NBA ready.

“I hate flying,” Shuuzou grimaces, shifting in his 737 window seat. “Hate it. If I have to get used to it, I have to. But right now, I can’t even imagine doing it full time.”

He flips open a cardinal red retainer case--it matches his school hoodie--and pops his mouthguard in. His teammates and Stanford staff take up a healthy portion of the red-eye flight, heading back to California after a win in Chapel Hill; most of them are already knocked out. Shuuzou, however, is acting like he’s been benched with four fouls and two minutes to go. He watches attentively when the flight attendant goes over the evacuation procedures; his heart rate on his Apple watch jumps as the plane pulls out of the gate. He slips a clunky pair of headphones over his ears, but keeps the window shade up. He needs to see the view--just in case this flight ends up being his last. 

Shuuzou’s jaw locks as the plane heads down the runway; he grips the armrest as the plane accelerates, and finally, starts to ascend. Some color returns to his skin when the plane levels out, in a field of clouds illuminated by a Carolina sunrise. His chest heaves with a breath, and he wiggles his mouthguard free, spitting it back into the case. His teeth are spared from being ground into dust for now; he’ll be wearing it again when the plane begins its descent. He pulls the window shade down.

A fear of flying might not make Shuuzou unique in his draft class (though we’ve yet to poll the others)--he insists he isn’t all that special. But across the Pacific, two decades ago, there was something in the water.

It started in Tokyo, with rumors of a near super-powered middle school basketball team, and cell phone videos on basketball fan forums that had to be fake. But rumors continued into the Japanese high school basketball circuit, and two years ago, for the first time in NBA history, two Japanese players were drafted in the first round. Before then, only two Japanese men had played in the league _total_ over its seventy year history.

Shuuzou had moved to Los Angeles with his family by the time these rumors had started spreading, his dual-citizen father qualifying for experimental treatment for a heart condition at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. Still, it’s hard to avoid comparisons to the new Japanese superstars. From the small-minded, sure--and then from those who know that Shuuzou was once a teenage teammate of the Cavaliers’ Aomine Daiki, at that same middle school.

“It’s a little embarrassing, being their senior, but not playing with them,” Shuuzou says, referring to Daiki and the Bulls’ Taiga Kagami. “But I can’t complain. It takes talent to thrive in American basketball. They have that talent.”

Does Shuuzou have that talent? At the very least, he has skill. Skill to captain a Cardinal team to the NCAA tournament his junior year--and perhaps enough for a repeat performance this year. With his background, of course he’s going to get asked about his future in the NBA. When it comes to the specifics, he remains tight-lipped.

“At school, I'm just another Asian kid. I'm going to play hard this year, but I'm still focusing on my degree,” says the Management Science major. “Of course I want to give pro basketball a try, but it’s too early to say what's plan A or plan B.”

As vague the future may be, he’s willing to entertain the possibilities.

“Get drafted, play a few years in the league, make enough money to fund my trip to grad school, and get back in on the administrative side of things a few years later? I wouldn’t be mad about that.” 

Shuuzou doesn’t think theorizing like this will hurt his chances of getting drafted. 

“I know the draft pool is small, but that doesn’t mean everyone’s name will be on the marquee when they get signed. There have to be guys who suit up when the bigger guys are injured, or when they need to take a break. Not everyone is happy being that guy, but someone has to him. That someone could be me.”

Could, not will--Shuuzou knows being too cocky won’t help his draft day position, either.

If you don’t know Shuuzou, you might think he’s self-depreciative, or even depressed. But he’s not wrong: NBA teams need all kinds of players. Players that need to step in when all-stars like Lebron or KD are hurt--players that, frankly, don’t get enough love from the fans. But they’re still talented enough to play in the NBA, where being in the middle of the pack still gets you close to a ten million dollar salary. It’d be hard for a kid playing for free in the NCAA--Shuuzou has been a vocal advocate for student athlete wages--to say no to that. 

Right now, it’s not about the money for Shuuzou; he has an economics paper to work on, and four more hours of flight time to white-knuckle his way through. Let’s hope the road to the tournament in March--and draft day of June--are far more smooth.

**Author's Note:**

> another fic inspired by sports journalism! you can find the other one i've written (kagahimualex) [here](https://archiveofourown.org/works/10635405)


End file.
